parties, hopes, and fears

I'm not sure where this came from, but I was thinking about attending parties this morning. While I sometimes find myself uncomfortable at parties because I dislike some of the people there, or feel bad vibes from the place, more often I think I pick up on the discomfort of others, and am reminded of my own. We enter a social group of strangers or near strangers with all our own hopes and fears. Our shortcomings are far more visible to ourselves than to others of course, but still we fear. And others see our fear just as we see theirs. We're all far too embarrassed about our humanness, and have forgotten how to laugh at ourselves.

Oh, I know why I'm thinking about this -- I'm hosting a campfire Saturday in our backyard down by the lake, and I was thinking of who to invite and who'd feel comfortable with whom, and why or why not. And then I realized I don't need to worry about it because, at worst, all it will take is a bit of self-laughter to get people comfortable. We're dominoes. Only one needs to fall first.